Ryder's 15-16 Month(s) Update

   So I haven't been so great about blogging as of late, but in my defense, there has been a lot going on.  Ryder had a gigantic health scare (which turned out to be nothing, thank god), his second bout with croup and a good old-fashioned case of conjunctivitis (both eyes, of course).  On top of that, Blake and I went on our long-awaited and much-anticipated trip to Paris, and we also went and visited my grandmother in Galveston.  However, those are all things that will have to be saved for later blog posts.  For now, an update on Ryder is much overdue.

   First, let's go ahead and discuss the elephant in the room.  My 16-month old still isn't walking.  That's right.  You heard me.  Ryder still hasn't taken the plunge.  On the upside, his crawling skills can rival those of any baby on the planet.  If there was a World Cup of Crawlers, he'd be the champion.  He gets where he wants to go, and he gets there FAST.  He also pulls up on anything and everything, will cruise along even the longest stretch of furniture, and occasionally will be so bold as to remove one hand and stand with the support of a mere five tiny fingers (*insert slight twinge of sarcasm here*).  And when I say that he isn't walking, I don't mean that he has taken a step here or there but just refuses to walk from point A to point B.  I mean that he literally has not taken a single, hands-free step.

   Now, although I'll fully admit that the above paragraph is laden with dramatic (and sarcastic) undertones, the truth is that I'm genuinely not concerned.  First of all, Ryder has been slow to reach all of his physical milestones.  He took forever to roll over, he took forever to sit unassisted, he took FOREVER to crawl and he took forever to pull up to standing.  So this ballgame is old hat by now.  Besides taking a ridiculously long time to reach such milestones, Ryder was very stubborn about each and every one of them.  He doesn't allow you to encourage him (verbally or physically).  In other words, he would throw an absolute fit when we forced him to have "tummy-time," or pulled him up on all fours into crawling position, or stood him up and tried to balance him against something in the standing position.  Same goes for walking.  Our efforts to walk with him while holding both of his hands result in buckled knees and screaming tantrums.  Until the 16- month mark, our efforts to stand him up behind a walking toy yielded the same result.  Finally, a few weeks ago, he decided he was ready to walk behind his walking toys and now he loves it.  But the key is that he decided it was time.  To this day, he still won't allow us to stand him behind his walker.  He has to crawl right up to it, on his own volition, stand up and go.  He rebuffs any and all efforts on our part to help or encourage him.  Finally, my concerns are kept at bay because Ryder is doing all of the appropriate pre-walking steps (pulling up, cruising, etc.), and when he does those things, it doesn't appear that he is having any difficulties or problems in terms of muscle development, etc.  The below video shows Ryder's initial experimentation with his walking toy.  He's already progressed a ton, and now trolls around the house at warp speed without any support from mommy or daddy.

   I did talk to some of my go-to sources at Playhouse Academy (i.e. Darcy and Jill) to see whether they thought I should look into physical therapy at this point, but they seemed to agree with my sentiments (i.e. Ryder is just slow to his his milestones and will take those first steps whenever he decides he is good and ready).  I wasn't planning to ask the pediatrician about it, but Ryder did have a sick appointment a few weeks ago, so I went ahead and mentioned the fact that Ryder isn't walking yet.  Indeed, Dr. Friedman is not at all worried and mentioned that one of his own grand-daughters did not walk until she was 19 or 20 months old.

   Hopefully I have established that I am not worried about this issue, but I will admit that it is starting to get slightly disappointing and a bit frustrating at times.  Sure, there are some benefits to having such a late walker.  For instance, he isn't constantly wiggling from my grasp so that he can walk freely when we are in public places.  It's also nice that I haven't had to start worrying about the spills he will undoubtedly take as a beginner-walker and the resulting bumps and bruises.  However, as we are approaching the beautiful Spring weather, I'm starting to itch for the option to take Ryder outside to play in the backyard and/or to take him to the park.  The logistics of playing outside or at a park with a crawler just aren't great.  I certainly don't want to be stuck indoors with him all Spring and Summer!  But I'm going to try not to dwell on it for now.  The weather is only just now turning nice, and the truth is that I have no clue when he'll start to walk.  It could be next week or it could be in August, so there is really no sense in worrying about potential limitations months from now.

   Okay, enough of all that.  Ryder has definitely become more and more vocal these last couple of months.  These are the words that he uses regularly:

Mama/Mommy
Dada/Daddy
Gow-Gow (Gaudi)
Hi/Hey
Bye
Thank You
Ball
Shoe
Uh-Oh
Yay!
Poo-Poo
No
Yeah (yes)
Cracker
"Isssat" (What's That?)

He loves to say "yay" and clap his hands when he has done something that he is proud of or when he is excited.  And perhaps the accomplishment that I am most proud of, he sometimes looks at us and says "poo-poo" as he is pooping.  I think that his poop announcements are genius, and I'm crossing my fingers that it's an early sign that he will potty-train easily (I know that this theory is a long-shot, but please don't burst my bubble).  In any event, I think it is awesome that he knows what he is doing when he is pooping and that he can announce it to us.  He has been nodding and shaking his head for a long time, but he now does these things with increased purpose.  When he nods or shakes his head, he is quite clearly telling us yes and no; whereas before, he did both of these motions sometimes just for the heck of it and/or because he thought it was funny.  And now he'll often say "yeah" or "no" along with his head nods and shakes for good measure.

I also love that he calls us "mommy" and "daddy" most of the time instead of "mama" and "dada."  It's exceptionally cute.  He can point to identify his head, nose, eyes, toes, feet and belly button.  If you ask him where an object is, he will point or go get it 75% of the time (the other times he will stare at us blankly or ignore us altogether).  He is still obsessed with any and all electronics with buttons (primarily the phone and remote control).  He loves to hold the phone up to his ear to "talk."  He knows how to blow kisses, but it is a newer trick and he only does it about 50% of the time.  He will make some animal sounds when you ask him "what a _____ makes" (dog, cat, horse, cow, bird, duck and tiger), but he is stubborn and refuses to answer most of the time.  He loves to wave at cars driving by and at strangers.  When we take him to restaurants, he'll wave at the waiters and other patrons and say "hi" until they acknowledge him and wave back.

Perhaps his favorite activity, and one that we can count on 100% of the time, is watching videos of himself on the iphone.  He'll show some level of interest in iphone videos in general, but specifically, he prefers to watch videos of himself.  My kid is clearly quite enthralled with himself.  It makes me wonder whether he has inherited Blake's inflated self-esteem. 

   Ryder is still an itsy bitsy thing.  We haven't had an official check-up since his one-year appointment (he'll have his 18 month check-up in May), but he's been weighed at various sick appointments.  As of Thursday, April 4, 2013 (just past 16-months old), Ryder weighed in at 20 lbs, 2 oz. (while fully clothed).  This was actually 12 ounces less than he had weighed at his prior appointment, which was in February.  Weight loss = no bueno.  But yet again, Dr. Friedman did not express any alarm.  He simply acknowledged that Ryder's weight has always been an issue, but that there is no reason to be overly concerned at this time and that he knows I'm doing everything I can to help him gain weight on my end.  We recently transferred Ryder to size 4 diapers, though he still fits fine in the size 3s as well.  He wears mostly size 12 clothing, but we've recently transitioned him to size 18 month pajamas, and i think he'll be wearing more and more size 18 months in the coming weeks.  Finally, I had Ryder's feet officially measured at Stride Rite a couple of weeks ago (he had a few hand-me-down shoes from Wyatt Strong that he was wearing on occasion, but I thought it time to get him fitted for some of his own).  He wears a size 4 shoe.

   Ryder's appetite is super inconsistent.  At some meals, he pigs out like crazy, his appetite rivaling that of a 400 pound sumo wrestler.  At other meals, he is super picky and will hardly touch a thing.  His food preferences are equally inconsistent.  He'll scarf down a bowl of macaroni on one day, and refuse it outright the next.  The only thing that he never rejects is fruit.  Everything else is a crap-shoot.  His favorite foods are still bananas and clementine oranges.  As seems to be Ryder's trend, he is extremely stubborn and will not allow you to trick, coax, encourage or physically force him to take a bite of anything that he decides he does not want.  Even if it's a bite of cake or something equally scrumptious, Ryder simply will not have it.  Blake and I both often try to sneak something into his mouth, thinking that once it hits his taste buds, the lightbulb will suddenly go off and he'll realize: "Ooohhhh, chocolate cookie/blueberry pancake/apple pie/cheesy potatoes (etc., etc.), these are really quite yummy.  I want more!"  But it fails EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.  It seems that this kid did not inherit the Moses food-loving gene.

   Ryder's night-time sleep schedule has not changed.  He goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. and wakes between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.  You definitely won't hear any complaints from us on that front.  His napping is still a battle.  According to the summary sheets that are sent home from school, he naps like a dream just about every school day (from 1 or 1:30 until 3:30 p.m.).  But when he's home Friday through Sunday, he gets fussy by late morning, and we give up and put him down for a nap.  His naps at home usually only last 45 minutes or an hour (boo!), and when he takes a late morning nap, he refuses to take an afternoon nap 99% of the time.  I wish we could maintain his school napping schedule on the weekends because I'd love him to nap for 2+ hours each day, but we haven't seemed to master that plan yet. 

   He's still quite attached to his loveys and pacis, and I'm getting antsier and antsier about ditching that dang paci.  At home, he pretty much only gets it during naps and at night (unless he is sick or having a particularly rough/cranky day), but I think that his teachers are softies and let him have it much more often than I'd like.  I plan to have another discussion with them when the summer session starts to make sure they are stricter about this.

   On the weekend of April 5-7, we took Ryder for his second trip to Galveston to see his Great-Grandma.  It was a bit rough because he was just getting over bout #2 with croup, and he developed pink-eye  while we were there (although we didn't know it was pink-eye until several days later).  He was a devilish, cranky nightmare, which might actually have been a side effect from the steroids he was on for the croup (or it could have just been because he wasn't feeling well).  BUT, he took long naps every day and slept great through the night.  The awesome napping made the weekend trip fairly pleasant despite his foul mood.  Plus, he was happy when he was being pushed in the stroller, and we were able to go on numerous walks thanks to the beautiful weather.  It was nice to visit with my Grandma and to show her how much Ryder has grown since his last visit.

   Finally, after another marathon blog post, I'll get to the goods.  Here is a random assortment of photos of Ryder over the last couple months.  At the very bottom, I've included two bonus video. Enjoy!

First Merry-Go-Round ride (Texas State Fair/Stock Show)

Orly, Gabriel, me, Ryder and Anita (a visit from our Mexican relatives)

Ryder and Miss Adelyn at music class

Ryder and cousin Whitney

Ryder and his BFF Micah at the Woods' 2013 Super Bowl Party (on daddy's birthday!)

Ryder and Micah loved playing with Charlotte's tea set and groceries

Hopefully not an indication of future teasing and bickering...

Ryder wasn't so sure about sharing his bathtub with Micah, but he warmed up to it eventually.

Ryder now sits at the big-kid table for lunch at school!

Hangin' with Momo and Ro.

I love to ride on my car and can finally scoot myself both forwards and backwards.

First Purim Carnival (loved the petting zoo!)

2nd haircut (by Diane at the Lux Machine)- it went smoothly!

Love this pic even though it's blurry

A rare capture of a pic with Uncle Brett during one of his visits from the big NYC

Baby's first Matzah!  (Passover 2013)

Brunch at Smoke in Dallas on Easter Sunday

Daddy-baby swap at Klyde Warren Park in Dallas on Easter Sunday

Klyde Warren Park

My handsome fellows on the beach in Galveston (April 2013)

You'll notice that Ryder lost his pants and gained a pacifier between the above picture with his daddy and this one... needless to say, our attempt to get his feet wet was a big fat fail.

Four Generations.  Loved seeing Great-Grandma!

I'm a serious driver.  Gotta keep my focus on the road.

The first video shows Ryder's first taste of a lemon.  It was spectacularly anticlimactic in that Ryder loved the lemon and didn't really make any of the stereotypical "pucker" faces.  The second video shows one of Ryder's "spirited" (i.e. overtired and therefore slap-happy, bordering on hyperactive and insane) moods.  If you're wondering, he is saying "boom" as he happily slams his head against the back of the chair.